Robyn Urback: What do you mean I can't get a job with my medieval feminist studies degree?

What do you mean I can't get a job with my medieval feminist degree?

Many young men and women headed back to the classroom this week, equipped with texts on cultural relativism and stars in their eyes. They should enjoy it while it lasts. Those stars will turn to dollar signs not long after graduation day, when the realization sets in that that medieval feminist studies degree is not as marketable as they had anticipated.

The problem isn’t unique to those who have chosen to pursue so-called “soft” degrees. For years now, graduates of teachers colleges (especially in Ontario) have found themselves with few job openings, as have journalism grads, some business majors and a growing cohort of law school alumni. In some industries, such as teaching, there is an oversupply of labour and too few job opportunities. For other fields, such as journalism, the stream of grads remains constant even though the industry itself is shrinking. And as for those equity studies and philosophy majors — unless they can flip that paper into a PhD and teach the courses themselves — they’ve long been looking at a career behind the counter.

There has been some structural movement to try to shrink the gap between available and in-demand skills among university grads. Ontario, for example, will soon halve the number of students accepted into teachers college programs and double the amount of time it takes to complete the degree. The University of Alberta announced last month that it will be closing 20 of its arts programs. And the University of Ottawa and Mount Royal University in Calgary recently said they will suspend admissions to their journalism programs (in the case of Mount Royal, it has suspended admission to its one-year certificate program, but maintains its four-year program). These changes may nominally affect the numbers of grads serving you your morning latte. But it won’t give the post-secondary system the shakeup it needs.

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One often-touted option by educational reformists is to change the nature of government subsidies so that the industries in demand receive the highest subsidies. In other words, create incentives for high school grads to enter nursing and skilled trades, while leaving poetry majors to foot the majority of their higher education bills themselves. It’s not a terrible idea, but it is an extraordinarily complicated one, especially considering that social science and humanities programs are glistening cash cows for universities. Administration certainly won’t appreciate government tampering with a good thing.

A more practical option is to reach kids before they’re at the point of deciding between that poetry degree or teachers college. Sure, most kids understand that finding a job may be difficult in certain industries, but 17-year-olds rarely appreciate the extent of that reality. Schools should make them. Teach high school students, though mandatory financial planning or personal finance courses, what it means to be 21-years-old, out of school, out of work, and $30,000 in debt. Give them employment numbers for various fields for grads five years out of university, and let students draft up education plans (and better yet, backup plans). Help them to work out how long it’ll take before they can buy their own home. Or finance a car. Or get off the supply teachers’ list. Many will still want that teaching certificate or history degree anyhow. But some won’t. And no one will be surprised when feminist studies doesn’t get them on the payroll at Merrill Lynch.